196 



VEGETABLE GARD'ENING. 



pay to dig them by hand, for which purpose tined garden forks 

 are desirable; the best potato diggers, however, do as good 

 work as can be done by hand, and are generally used by those 

 who raise this crop on a large scale. When potatoes are cheap, 

 they should be dug with a potato digger or plowed out; though 

 when plowed out some tubers will get covered up, most of 

 these may be brought to the surface by the use of a straight 

 tooth harrow. If the tubers are keeping well in the ground, it 

 is a good plan to delay the digging until the cool weather of 

 autumn, when they may be carried directly from the field to the 

 cellar. If they are rotting in the ground or are "scabby," they 

 should be dug at once, and if the cellar is cool they may be put 

 at once into it, but, otherwise, it is a good plan to pit them in 

 the field until cool weather comes. 



Pitting in mild weather is done by putting the tubers into 

 heaps and covering them with straw or hay and a few inches 

 of loam. The straw should be allowed to stick out along the top 



A 



Fig-ure 98.— Potatoes pitted for winter. 



of the heap for ventilation, so as to allow the moisture to pass 

 off. In the colder weather of late autumn, the covering, ot 

 course, should be heavier, and when potatoes have ceased to 

 sweat there is no need of ventilation. In milder sections, pota- 

 toes are stored through the winter in such pits, but it is imprac' 

 ticable here. However, even in Minnesota, potatoes may be safe- 



